On Wed, Jun 04, 2003 at 11:30:19AM +0100, Ted.Harding@nessie.mcc.ac.uk wrote:
Hi Folks,
The problem I've solved below may have bugged you too, so I'm sharing the solution.
To set the scene: Probably like many of you, I do my email work "off-line" and then, when there is mail to be sent, I dial up to the ISP and send the mail (basically using "sendmail -q").
However, I've been bugged for ages by the fact that sendmail can lock some or all of the mail-queue files (as shown by asterisks when 'mailq' is run) for many minutes, which can block the queue for ages. My usual solution is simply to sit around until 'mailq' shows no asterisks, and then dial out and send, but I've also tried other, more drastic, approaches which have their disadvanrages.
Do you know why the queue is being blocked? I had problems a few years ago with Sendmail caching the DNS lookups - the lookup would fail, and this fact would be stored in a cache for a few minutes, and no matter how much prodding I gave Sendmail, it wouldn't send the mail until the cache had timed out. Disabling the cache and making Sendmail do DNS lookups each time solved the problem. HTH... -- David Smith | Tel: +44 (0)1454 462380 Home: +44 (0)1454 616963 STMicroelectronics | Fax: +44 (0)1454 617910 Mobile: +44 (0)7932 642724 1000 Aztec West | TINA: 065 2380 GPG Key: 0xF13192F2 Almondsbury | Work Email: Dave.Smith@st.com BRISTOL, BS32 4SQ | Home Email: David.Smith@ds-electronics.co.uk